WASHINGTON — When Kenneth and Beverly Fleeman built their home on Gillman Avenue it was one of only a few houses on the hill.

At the end of the dead-end street was a cornfield and the lawn was bordered by a 160-acre farm to the north. Over nearly five decades the Fleemans watched as roads were paved, and one by one houses popped up throughout the young neighborhood.

“Done a lot of changing,” Kenneth, now 81, said.

From their living room window they can watch again as the houses ripped apart by the Nov. 17 tornado are reassembled atop their footprint, a reincarnation of the lives interrupted by nature’s fury.

The Fleemans were lucky. Six-hundred neighboring homes were destroyed in the violent winds. The brick house Kenneth built himself was near the edge of the tornado’s devastating path but was left relatively unscathed.

Again Kenneth and Beverly Fleeman are one of only two homes on their block.

“We’re kind of standing here by ourselves. I think they’re anxious to get back,” 73-year-old Beverly said of neighbors who chose to rebuild.

The home was uninhabitable for nearly six weeks and required about $40,000 worth of repairs to the roof, windows and floors.

By the new year, the couple was back in the home they left, though in a neighborhood that will never be the same.

Today 306 Gillman Ave. is flanked by a home still in shambles, the roof and walls torn away, on one side; on the other a driveway leads to only a foundation.

The otherwise quiet neighborhood is now abuzz with the roar of construction equipment, and traffic is clogged by trucks and machinery bringing pieces of new homes or hauling away scattered debris from the ever-changing landscape.

Nearly half of the homes destroyed have begun the rebuilding process.

“It’s kind of funny to see some of these houses going up. Day to day you see something new,” Beverly said.

Some of those affected by the storm, like the Fleemans, have repaired and returned. Many others whose homes were destroyed have a much longer process ahead as they build in an effort to replace what was lost.

From the doorstep the Fleemans can view the scarred landscape, the trees stripped of their leaves and limbs.

“We can see the highway. We never could see the highway because there was always a house across the street,” she said.

“It won’t be long before we won’t be able to see out there,” Kenneth said.

In the six months since the tornado, much like in the 50 years before, the neighborhood has changed, and the coming months promise even more.

As residents trickle back into their homes in the newly erected neighborhoods, others are forced to wait for their new homes.

They visit, the Fleemans say, to check progress of the construction or clean debris out of their yards, and call to keep in touch with the neighbors they’ve known for years as the community inches back to normal.

“One woman said she was going to rebuild, but it was going to be a brick house, because ours was still standing,” Kenneth said, and with a sly smile, “But it’s not just the brick. It was how it was built.”

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►Demolition begins Monday on Georgetown Common apartments

►Complete tornado coverage

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Join us at 11 a.m. Monday, May 19 for a live Web chat on pjstar.com with Washington Mayor Gary Manier, moderated by Journal Star reporter Laura Nightengale.

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Laura Nightengale can be reached at 686-3181 or lnightengale@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauranight.